Burning Moscow

Chapter 1598 The absurd airdrop plan

After the jeep followed the armored car in front of me for some distance, I suddenly remembered something. I couldn’t help but raised my hand and patted my forehead, annoyed: “Damn it, what a hell!”

“What’s the matter, Comrade Deputy Commander?” The driver sitting next to me was startled when he saw my behavior and hurriedly stepped on the brakes. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” I waved at the driver and told him: “You continue driving!”

The jeep continued to move forward, and I couldn’t help but smile again and again. Major General Rezhov was indeed the commander of the 70th Army before, but he was transferred to the post of Commander of the 28th Guards Army last month. , I would have forgotten such a major event, I am really confused. . Fastest update

After arriving at the headquarters of the group army, the officer on duty at the door after verifying my identity, respectfully said: “Comrade Deputy Commander, General Husband is convening a meeting with the division commanders in the conference room. Do you need me to be your guide? ?”

I nodded to the officer and said politely: “Okay, Comrade Officer, please lead me in front.”

Under the guidance of the officer, I came to the door of the conference room. There was a desk beside the door as usual, and an officer sat behind the desk. He saw my arrival, he quickly got up and ran out from behind the desk, raised his hand to salute me, and said: “Comrade Commander is in the meeting. Am I going to inform him?”

“No, I will go in by myself.” After I said this, I thanked the officer who showed me the way, stepped forward and pushed open the closed door, and walked in in strides.

Sitting directly opposite the door was the new commander of the group army, Major General Husband. He saw someone who broke into the meeting room without saying hello. He was about to get angry. After seeing that it was me, he quickly got up from his seat and turned towards I walked over quickly. Stopped two or three steps before me, raised his hand in salute, and reported in accordance with the order: “Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, the 70th Army is holding a divisional commander meeting, please give instructions!”

I quickly glanced around the room. The long conference table was filled with school-level officers and even a few generals. When their husband came to me, they also got up from their seats one after another and cast their eyes on me. I returned a gift to the husband and said politely: “Comrade General, I just come and have a look, please continue!” After that, I turned to the divisional commanders in front of me, raised my hands and pressed down, indicating They all sat down.

The husband led me to his position, and at the same time ordered a staff member who was standing next to the meeting recorder: “Give a chair to the deputy commander!”

The staff officer hurriedly ran to the empty chair leaning against the wall, took one and placed it next to the **sha seat.

“Please sit down, Comrade Deputy Commander.” The husband moved his chair aside to make more room for me.

I sat on the chair moved by the staff for me, looked at the husband and asked, “Comrade General, what were you discussing before I came here?”

“Comrade Deputy Commander, the situation is like this.” The husband politely told me: “According to the order, our army will cooperate with the 47th army in the near future to launch an attack on the German army entrenched on the east bank of the Vistula. We are currently discussing how to transport heavy weapons across the river.”

“Did the discussion result?” My husband’s words aroused my curiosity, and I hurriedly asked: “I really want to know how you can transport heavy weapons to the other side of the river without enough equipment for crossing the river. ?”

Hearing my question, the husband turned to look at a general sitting on his left hand side, and said with a smile: “Comrade Deputy Commander, my chief of staff came up with this method. I think it is up to him to tell you. Report, the introduction is more comprehensive.”

The general whose name was named by the policeman, stood up slowly, nodded at me with a smile, and started talking: “Comrade deputy commander, because the Germans blew up all the bridges on the Vistula, I The army lacked sufficient river crossing equipment. In order to solve this difficulty, after a few days of thinking, I decided to use airdrop to solve the problem of heavy weapons transportation.”

“Using the airdrop method?” I was confused by the Chief of Staff’s remarks, and I asked inexplicably: “Chief of Staff, can you be more specific, how should we conduct the airdrop?”

“It’s very simple. After flying over the Vistula, we opened the rear hatch and threw the tank down.” The chief of staff confidently said: “As long as our tank can land successfully, we can immediately go into battle. ”

“After the tank hits the ground, you can immediately go into battle.” After listening to the Chief of Staff’s words, I couldn’t help but smile and nodded. Just as I was about to compliment him, my smile suddenly froze on my face. I looked at the other person and asked in surprise: “Comrade Chief of Staff, where was the tanker when our tank was airborne? After the tank was dropped, they Jump down to receive the tank again?”

“Of course not,” the chief of staff shook his head to deny my speculation, triumphantly: “I plan to let the tank soldiers sit in the tank and airborne with the tank.”

“Shut up!” As soon as his voice fell, I slammed the table and stood up, pointing to his nose and cursing angrily: “Chief of Staff, have you considered that when the tank landed from a high altitude, it landed? What is the impact of the time? How much damage will the tank soldiers sitting in?”

“Comrade Deputy Commander, please don’t get angry.” The chief of staff did not immediately defend, but said in a flat tone: “Please listen to me explain this to you in detail.”

“Right.” I wanted to hear how he defended myself, so I sat down again, angrily: “I want to hear what reason you have to make such a ridiculous plan.”

Faced with my reproach, the chief of staff was still smiling. He slowly said: “Comrade Deputy Commander, before the outbreak of the war, I worked in the Weapons and Equipment Department. We conducted similar experiments as early as 1935 and achieved success.”

In 1935, the Soviet Union had conducted a man-machine airdrop experiment. This news made me speechless for a while. I didn’t know how to refute the chief of staff, so I had to wait patiently to listen to him continue.

“…In order to achieve a rapid airdrop, the General Armament Department conducted a top-secret experiment in 1935.” The chief of staff first glanced over the commanders of the audience, and solemnly said: “We put a T-37. The amphibious reconnaissance tank, strapped to the tb-3 heavy bomber, flew close to the water and then dropped it by air. No parachute was used, because everyone believed that the tank would float to the shore under the action of huge inertia.”

This is the first time I have heard about the Chief of Staff, so I asked with great interest: “Comrade Chief of Staff, do you know that the experiment was successful?”

Hearing my question, the chief of staff smiled bitterly: “This kind of tentative experiment is of course impossible to succeed in one shot. We pitched three cars in a row, and they all sank directly to the bottom. Due to underestimation, the first one was created. All three members in the sinking tank died.”

I know that since the chief of staff dared to raise the matter at such a meeting, this experiment was 80% successful. But in order to know what I am interested in as soon as possible, I kept silent and listened to the Chief of Staff talking about what happened next.

“After we repeatedly studied the reasons for the failure, a comrade suddenly asked whether we can install a paddling shield under the t-37…. After installing the paddling shield, we went through several experiments. The air-dropped tank can finally use its huge inertia to rush to the shore from the surface of the water.”

After listening to the chief of staff talking about the airdrop experiment that year, I immediately defined it as a brain-dead airdrop method in my heart. I can’t control whether other troops apply this method or not; but in the Belarusian First Front Army, I absolutely will not allow this kind of thing that ignores the lives of tank soldiers.

After the Chief of Staff finished speaking, everyone’s eyes focused on me again, and everyone was quietly waiting for me to express my position. I slowly stood up and said decisively: “Comrade commanders, I am here to make a statement. I absolutely disagree with the use of this dangerous method to carry out the airdrop of heavy equipment.”

“But, Comrade Deputy Commander.” The chief of staff rejected his proposal when he saw me. He couldn’t help but anxiously: “But at the meeting just now, more than half of the comrades have agreed to use this tactic.”

“I don’t know if any of the commanders here agrees that we use this man-machine integrated airdrop method to airdrop our heavy equipment?” My gaze slowly swept across every commander present: ” If you agree, please raise your hand!”

After my words, there was not a single hand up. Seeing this situation, the chief of staff became more anxious, he could only turn his eyes for help to the husband next to him. The husband guessed that he could not bear to see his subordinates slumped, so he stood up and said to the table full of subordinates: “Comrades commanders, whoever agrees with the Chief of Staff Major General Vasily’s proposal, please raise your hand. It’s a mistake. We won’t blame everyone.”

Although a policeman came out to support Vasily’s Chief of Staff, it took a long time before several colonels hesitated to raise their right hands, expressing their agreement with Vasily’s airborne method.

Seeing that there are people who really support Vasily below, I can’t help but frown, thinking that if I don’t serve them on this occasion, maybe they will come to a crime in the future, really give me a man-machine airdrop, and scrap a few tanks. The trivial matter, if it caused unnecessary casualties for those tank soldiers with rich combat experience, it would be worth the loss.

I coughed slightly, and then said: “Comrades, why should I oppose the man-machine integrated airdrop plan proposed by Chief of Staff Vasily. First of all, this idea is really crazy and too advanced. We don’t have anything at all. Platforms and umbrellas that can protect personnel and vehicles with integrated airborne cushioning;

Secondly, even with the protection of umbrellas, the huge impact formed when the tank falls from the air will shake the soldiers sitting in the tank alive;

Third, even if you take a step back, there is no big risk for airdrops. However, due to the limitation of the load of the transport aircraft, the tanks we can use for airdrops can only be lighter-weight light tanks, and the number will not be too large.

I would like to ask the commanders present here, even if the situation is as envisioned by the Chief of Staff Vasily, a group of light tanks are successfully dropped behind enemy lines, but when faced with the German Tiger and Panther tanks, our firepower and armor Very weak tanks can only be reduced to targets for their shooting. ”

After my words, the whole conference room fell into silence. Vasily sat down at the table, and the officers who agreed with Vasily also sat in their respective positions and smoked.

In the end, the husband came out to make the rounds: “Well, comrades commanders, since the deputy commander of the front army has already adopted the man-machine airdrop method, which is wrong, then there is no need to discuss this matter. Today’s meeting is over. So far, everyone will go back to their respective troops.”

When the commanders who participated in the meeting were almost gone, and in the huge conference room, there were only three people left: me, my husband and Vasily, I said to Vasily who was in a bad mood: “Comrade Chief of Staff, you Don’t you think that at the meeting just now, I was a little bit merciless?”

“No.” Although Vasily didn’t say anything, I knew that he was still not convinced. If I was not mistaken, after a few years, he became the commander of the paratroopers, so he solemnly proposed to be airborne. The promotion of integrated man-machine airdrops in the army did not attract enough attention from the superiors.

Yan Yue and I said to him: “Comrade Chief of Staff, if the man-machine airdrop was really a huge success, I guess it would have been promoted in the whole army a long time ago, and it will not be delayed until now.”

“But our experiment really caused the tank that was dropped by air to rush from the water to the land with the help of huge inertia.” Vasily said unconvincedly: “Isn’t this kind of experimental result considered a success?”

“No,” I said decisively in order to dispel his illusions: “The airdrop experiment you conducted is just a bet on luck. You must have good luck from the pilot and the angle of the airdrop to achieve your desired effect. And dropping a tank from the air to land is another matter. If there is no platform for airborne cushioning during a low-altitude airdrop, the tank will fall apart; while for a high-altitude airdrop, even if it is equipped with a parachute, it is specific The impact will also make the lives of the soldiers in the tank hard to protect Comrade Deputy Commander, if you are just worried that the tank members will be injured in the airdrop, then you can change it.” Vasily did not Convincingly: “Then we can implement the separation of man and machine for airdrops.”

“That won’t work, Comrade Chief of Staff.” I immediately denied his new idea. “The tanks and the tank soldiers will definitely not fall at the same place. After the airborne is completed, our tank soldiers will spend a lot of time looking for the tanks to land. This will delay the fighters.”

“Is it really impossible to use this kind of airdrop method?” Vasily asked unwillingly.

“Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, this is absolutely impossible.” After I finished this sentence, in order not to continue to hurt his self-esteem, I added: “Maybe a few years later, with the development of science and technology, our troops You can use the method you used today to implement airdrops behind enemy lines.”

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